Woo-hoo, finally won a truck at Japanese auction today. Got smoked on the last two I bid on. 1992 Suzuki Carry DD51T. Hopefully when I do the paperwork after the weekend I'll find out how long it'll take to get it to me, I'm guessing mid-January. Time for some parts shopping. That is all.
Yeah, PCA is probably the best aside from Brave Auto who does a full road test but his price is astronomical.. I was going to import another JDM vehicle through them, but opted to just build a T bucket instead. Wonder if Derek is going to put your truck on the channel?
Is Brave more expensive? I thought he was actually cheaper. My understanding was that Brave and PCA were both ¥100k, but while PCA charged actual prices for inland transport Brave was complimentary because they have their own transporters. Brave also will store a purchased vehicle in a secure garage for literally a couple years until it becomes 25 year eligible, PCA won't. In the end though I went with PCA because while Brave didn't respond to my emails and seemed to deal with premium vehicles only, Derek and Andrew at PCA are quick with email replies, helpful, educational, and they have so much exposure on YouTube I started to feel like I know them lol. I probably could have saved $300 going with some faceless no-frills company but I figured it was worth it for the service.
Oh yeah, and I'm emailing them now, they asked if they could feature the truck on their channel. I told them to absolutely feature the truck. The only other Suzuki I saw them review was an older DA51T, and Derek said in the video that they buy a ton of kei trucks and never get to review them because most go to dealers.
I think that Brave offers services that he doesn't list ( at an extra cost ) and won't be bothered if you just want his basic service or a car/ truck that might not be worth his time. It's good you got one with plates. That means it has current reg and has been on the road. My truck is exactly the same in a 5spd
Yeah, I think the registration is good until May. This one has the 5 speed with extra low EL gear, high range only 4wd transfer case, and diff-lock. Finding a clean one with diff-lock was a pain. This one isn't perfect, but it's good enough for my plans.
Yeah, I don't think the 5spd was offered with a low range transfer gear until later. Mine is high range only also, with the EL gear. I don't have diff lock but I bought it primarily as my daily driver so I didn't much care if it did or didn't have it
Yeah, that whole model packaging system they had for the early DD51Ts annoys the hell out of me lol. I really prefer the look of the round headlight ones, as well as upgradability, but they only come with a 4 speed and high/low case. I also plan on using mine for a lot of street and highway driving so I wanted that 5th gear, but to get 5th I had to take proprietary rectangular headlights and no low range. I only care about low range and difflock because I want to use it as a hunting buggy a couple times a year and need to be good offroad. I figure with difflock and a granny gear I'll be fine, but I'd really love to have a 5 speed with high/low case and round headlights. I thought about buying two trucks and making a mutt but it's probably way more work than it's worth.
Pasta, I appreciate the review of PCA. I was thinking about going through them, and been drooling over the trucks through their auction tool while I plan things out
It's my first time buying, but I highly recommend them. They've been great and they already have a really good reputation with a large enthusiastic fan base. Check out their YouTube channel if you haven't already, watch enough vehicle reviews and weekly auction picks videos and you'll get a feel for them as cool people. Very much the high-energy small business approach with a lot of personal attention you get when you go with the little guy in the industry. There's a handful of other companies that could save you a couple hundred bucks and have inventory in stock now, but you miss out on the huge variety of the auctions and the ability to have stupid questions answered all day without judgment lol.
